Empirical evaluation of OpenCCM for Java-based distributed, real-time, and embedded systems

Abstract

Component technology can overcome many limitations of conventional Object Request Brokers (ORBs) in developing distributed, real-time, and embedded (DRE) applications. Component technology has particular advantages for building large-scale DRE systems. The CORBA Component Model (CCM) enables the composition and reuse of software components and the configuration of key non-functional aspects of DRE systems such as timing, fault-tolerance, and security. However, the CCM can introduce additional overhead to the runtime performance and code size of middleware. Hence, the overhead for using the CCM needs to be evaluated to determine if the CCM can be effectively employed in the design of high-reliability DRE applications. In this paper, we empirically evaluated the performance of OpenCCM, a Java-based implementation of the CCM standard, when configured with two Java ORBs: with ZEN, a real-time Java ORB, and with OpenORB, a desktop Java ORB. We measured throughput, latency, and jitter of method invocations for both ORBs configured with and without OpenCCM. We also measured the additional memory requirement introduced by the CCM implementation. We concluded that OpenCCM adds some overhead to both Java ORBs, affecting OpenORB's performance more than ZEN's. More development of the CCM may be necessary to bring its advantages to high-performance DRE systems.